Holder, in New York City, Calls Terror Trials Safe

The trial and conviction of abu Ghaith are a triumph for our system of justice. The machinery constructed two hundred years ago has proven itself again able to deal with the challenges of the 21st century. But given such marvelous tools, we must ask again why president Obama preferred to assert a new power in the extra-judicial slaying of al-Awlaki.

The same charges that were made against abu Ghaith could have been laid to al-Awlaki. Yes, to arrest him would have been inconvenient. But one's right to due process of law takes no legal account of convenience. And if al-Awlaki had been killed while resisting arrest, we would have no constitutional crisis.

But president Obama has asserted this new executive power of life and death, unconstrained by the courts or by law at all. If he can have al-Awlaki killed, it is no longer clear that he couldn't have any of us killed.

So let's celebrate the abu Ghaith conviction. But let's acknowledge in the same breath that our rule of law is teetering.